


Friends Don’t

by Gimmedafood



Series: K-Pop Short Stories [2]
Category: EXID (Band), Mamamoo, Red Velvet (K-pop Band)
Genre: 5+1 Things, F/F, Friends to Lovers, Getting Together
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-15
Updated: 2020-07-15
Packaged: 2021-03-05 03:28:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,952
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25287595
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gimmedafood/pseuds/Gimmedafood
Summary: There are some things “friends” don’t do. Here are the thing that Moon Byulyi and Kim Yongsun do that their friends think a little bit weird for two “friends”.
Relationships: Ahn Hyejin | Hwasa/Jung Wheein, Bae Joohyun | Irene/Son Seungwan | Wendy, Kim Yongsun | Solar/Moon Byulyi | Moonbyul
Series: K-Pop Short Stories [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2016142
Comments: 9
Kudos: 199





	Friends Don’t

**Friends Don’t**

  * _They don’t hear each other’s names and forget to concentrate, hits a nerve and lights you up like dynamite._



“Fuck, this is going to kill me,” Hyejin looks over the table at her best friend and laughs. Byulyi has her hands buried in her hair, messing it up even more than normal and is glaring down at her mechanical design homework with a fire Hyejin hasn’t seen in her since they left their archrival back in highschool.

Hyejin shakes her head. “You’ll be fine.”

“You don’t know that.” Byulyi says petulantly.

“I do,” Hyejin says patiently, “Because you are top of your class and this isn’t you not getting it; it’s you being a tired asshole.”

Byulyi grumbles a bit more, and Hyejin takes a sip of her coffee, annoyed to find that it’s empty. She leaves Byulyi to wallow in self-pity and makes her way to the front of their favorite coffee shop to order.

Byulyi is back to scribbling notes onto paper while simultaneously doing something on her laptop (and this motherfucker thinks class is going to  _ kill her, _ Hyejin rolls her eyes at the audacity). Hyejin slides the coffee that she  _ so nicely _ brought back for Byulyi across the table and is thanked for her efforts with a grunt.

There are three girls settling into the table next to them as Hyejin takes her seat again and she prepares for the inevitable increase in noise. At first, it’s not terrible - the soft rustle of papers and laptop keys as they get their stuff out.

Then they start  _ talking  _ and Hyejin tries to fight back a scowl.

Byulyi, like the asshole she is, isn’t even affected by it. Still managing to take notes  _ and  _ work through the assignment on her laptop at the same time, like they’re not even there. 

If she wasn’t such a good friend, helping Hyejin with anything and everything she needed, Hyejin might hate her.

“Shit!” one of the girls exclaims suddenly, which is right when Hyejin loses it and reaches into her bag for her headphones. Spotify will be better than this, she’s sure. “I don’t even know! Let’s just ask somebody.”

“I’ll text Yongsun,” another girl says, and Byulyi’s hand stills on her computer.

Hyejin watches, fascinated, as she brings it back up and begins scrolling again. Much,  _ much _ more slowly. There’s a dazed look in her eyes, like she’s not even reading what’s on the screen.

The pencil’s still hanging loosely in Byulyi’s hand, dangling like she’s forgotten it’s even there. There’s the  _ smallest  _ of smiles on her face, gentle and easy, like she’s thinking about baseball, soju, sunny days at the beach with her friends - any of the things that make her happiest and  _ not  _ mechanical engineering homework. 

And it hits Hyejin, that she  _ is  _ thinking of one of the things that make her happiest. Or rather, a person.

“Hey!” Hyejin snaps her fingers.

“What?” Byulyi blinks a few times as she comes back to reality. Her pencil falls out of her hand and lands on the floor.

Hyejin can’t bring herself to call her out for this, like she would’ve under  _ any other circumstance.  _ “Just had a question for you about problem twelve.”

.*.*.*.*

  * _Friends don’t call you in the middle of the night, couldn’t tell you why, just felt like saying “Hi.”_



It’s late when Wheein stumbles home from the bar, but her Stats exam  _ killed  _ her that day and she  _ deserved _ to go out and get trashed.

Frankly, she’s been looking to not come home at all tonight, but the prospects had been a bit bleak. So she’d stuck it out with Hyejin and Hani, all the way up until they’d closed down the bar with Celine Dion’s song from the Titanic and everyone left sung along at their drunken best, (or sloppy worst, she’s not here to judge), only to make them walk her home since it was clear no one else was going to, and she would never pass up time spent with Hyejin.

She finally gets her key in the lock and closes the apartment door again. She’s  _ starving _ and fuck if she’s not going to demolish last night’s leftover pizza before she climbs into bed.

As she’s pulling it out of the fridge, she hears a giggle and pauses, straining her ears to listen.

Another giggle.

Wheein is suspicious, but not suspicious enough to leave her pizza behind, and once she’s got two slices in hand she pokes her head around the corner to see what’s up.

Yongsun’s light is on.

Wheein stops in the open doorway. Her roommate is lying on the bed, a smile on her face as she talks into the phone. “Yeah, I guess so. Goodnight. No! No!” She laughs. “Goodnight.” The smile is still on her face as she pulls it away from her ear.

“Who was that?” Wheein asks through a mouthful of pizza, even though she has a pretty good idea already from the warm smile on her best friend’s face.

“Oh my God!” Yongsun gasps. “You scared me!”

Wheen grins, but chooses not to comment on how Yongsun  _ didn’t  _ notice her come in, despite the ruckus she  _ definitely _ caused in the kitchen looking for her pizza. She jumps forward, landing on Yongsun’s bed and leaning on the wall to get comfy. “Who was that?” she presses again, cause she’s an asshole when she’s drunk.

“You better not get pizza grease on my bed,” Yongsun ignores the question in favor of scolding her, but Wheein can see her cheeks starting to get pink.

“Too late.” Wheein says cheerfully. There’s grease all over her hands that’s definitely transferred to Yongsun’s bed. 

“Wheein!”

Wheein is too drunk to play this game anymore. If Yongsun’s just going to beat around the bush, she’s just going to come out and ask, “What did Byulyi want?”

Aaaaannnndddd… Yongsun’s cheeks are full-on red. “What makes you think it was Byulyi?” she asks, avoiding Wheein’s eyes.

“That reaction.” Wheein snorts out a laugh. “So come on, what’d she want?”

Yongsun sighs. “Nothing really.”

Wheein’s eyebrows fly up. “Nothing?” she repeats skeptically. “She called you for “ _ nothing really _ ,” at two A.M.?”

“Yeah,” there’s another smile spreading across Yongsun’s face. “We were just… just talking.”

Wheein opens her mouth to tease her before she processes the smile on Yongsun’s face. Fond. Gentle, easy. Like… like she doesn’t even realize it’s there.

God, if she hasn’t realized yet… Wheein is not going to be the asshole who fucks it up for her. 

“Well,” she says, pushing herself off of Yongsun’s bed to go to her own (and maybe get some more pizza). “The next time you two losers are still up at this hour, you could just join us at the bar instead.”

.*.*.*.*

  * _They don’t almost say “I love you” when they’re downtown somewhere, just a little drunk._



Seulgi’s just looking for the bathroom, ok? She doesn’t want to cause trouble, she doesn’t want to get lost again, and she  _ certainly _ isn’t looking to stumble upon something she doesn’t mean to.

How this shit always happens to her, she doesn’t know.

She pushes through the crowd around the men’s bathroom, which, according to Hani, is supposed to lead to the hallway with the ladies room. There’s a hallway - success! - but so far, no ladies room, and Seulgi presses on, wondering if the absolutely plastered Maid of Honor was the best person to ask. 

As she thinks she’s nearing the end of the hallway, annoyed at the lack of bathroom, she finds there’s one more turn and she rounds it, only to immediately jump back around the corner.

She peaks back around. Moonbyul is slumped against the wall, running her fingers through her hair, her phone pressed against her ear. “Yongsun!”

Motherfucker, she did  _ not  _ want to stumble on something like this tonight.

“Yongsun!” Byulyi grins in that easy way of hers, her eyes a little glassy like they always get when she’s been drinking. “Nothing. What are you doing?”

Seulgi can’t believe this girl is one of the most eligible bachelorettes on campus. She pulls her phone out of her pocket and starts recording. She won’t  _ actually _ send it around the whole campus - most likely to their roommates and or the rest of the girls at the bachelorette party so she can be roasted for it tomorrow.

In front of her, Byulyi laughs, like she always does when she’s drunk, and scoffs, “Studying? It’s a Saturday! You should be having fun!”

Whatever Yongsun’s response is, it brings out another laugh. Byulyi looks so fond as the two of them exchange little quips back and forth about her Saturday plans. This is not the face of a woman who was “so single she was the best in the album, badun chsss.”

No. Seulgi thinks slowly, taking in her friend’s… everything. This looked more like the face of a woman- 

“I love…” Seulgi holds her breath, feeling like she’s intruding on what could be the biggest moment to date of Byulyi and Yongsun’s non-relationship but unable to look away. Byulyi, always so sure and confident in herself, sounds so hesitant. “Beer.” She laughs into the phone, but from the change in her tone, Seulgi’s sure it wasn’t what she was going to say originally. “Yeah, I should get another one! You’re so smart! Bye Yongsun!”

She hangs up the phone, cradling it in her hands for a minute. Seulgi stops recording, but somehow the joke doesn’t seem as funny anymore. 

She deletes it without another look and turns, resuming her search for the bathroom.

.*.*.*.*

  * _They don’t talk about the future and put each other in it, and get chills with every accidental touch._



“Irene!” She’d recognize that squeal anywhere, and sure enough, when she turns around, a familiar blonde is running towards her.

“Yongsun!” Irene pulls the girl, who’d felt like a sister since she’d been graced with the pseudo-title when they were paired during sorority recruitment freshmen year, in for a hug. “How are you?”

“Good! I’m good.” Yongsun’s beaming and she’s reaching her hand out. Irene should’ve known this was coming. “But come on! I want to see the ring!”

Irene grins and pushes her left hand forward. The princess cut diamond catches the sunlight, reflecting into the eyes of some of the crowd around them at the Homecoming Tailgate; she sees a group of guys glancing around trying to find the source of the light.

Yongsun doesn’t care, gasping appropriately about the beautiful diamond Irene’s high school sweetheart (and girlfriend of now ten years) had bestowed upon her shortly after they’d moved into their apartment, just months after graduating last spring. “Irene! It’s beautiful! Have you started planning?”

“Not really?” Irene shrugs. “We’ve looked at a couple of venues, and we’re thinking next fall.”

Yongsun smiles gently. “Fall will be beautiful.”

Irene shrugs again - it’s very tentative and still a hot point of contention as her future mother-in-law pushes for a spring wedding - and changes the subject. “Anyway, what’s new with you?”

Yongsun bites her lip. “Just thinking about law school, honestly.”

Irene can’t help but laugh at how nervous her friend is. “You’ll get in.”

Yongsun shrugs but smiles bashfully. “Hopefully. My top choice is Chonnam, so we might head out there after graduation.”

It’s out before Irene can stop it. “We?”

Yongsun nods. “Me and Byul.”

Irene keeps a schooled smile on her face but peeps her eyes over in Byulyi’s direction as Yongsun discusses how they’re not quite sure about being so far from either of their families but that there’s great opportunities for both of them in the city. She’s sure  _ someone _ would’ve updated her if there had been a status change in Byulyi and Yongsun’s not-relationship, but it had been all radio silence since semester had started.

.*.*.*.*

  * _Friends don’t stand around playing with their keys, finding reasons not to leave, trying to hide the chemistry._



Lab ran so fucking late that night; Wheein is  _ pissed  _ when she pulls into a parking spot on the street in front of their building. She's got her dinner in a take-out bag in the passenger seat next to her and her backpack on the floor in front of it, where she'd thrown it angrily after running out of the building, so annoyed at her group for their incompetence.

She reaches over to pick it up, but draws back suddenly, when a couple in front of the door ( _ her door, _ god, why are they blocking her from getting inside to eat her burrito) catches her eye.

Actually, it's the hand that reaches up to brush through messy silver hair that catches her eye because that would be no one else besides Moon Byulyi.

And sure enough, when she takes the slightest step to the side, Wheein catches the sight of the blonde hair that belongs to her best friend.

She slips down lower in her seat, hoping they don't see her.

And then she slides back up just an inch higher, to see over her dashboard, because she's in the prime position to spy on them.

Byulyi’s keys are in her other hand (the right one, the one that she doesn't constantly run through her hair), and she moves them through her fingers as she and Yongsun continue to chat. Wheein wishes desperately she could hear them, especially when Yongsun blushes and Byulyi laughs.

She doesn't have any popcorn, but she reaches for the tortilla chips that came with her burrito, munching mindlessly, as she watches Yongsun swat at Byulyi’s forearm. She barely reacts (of course not, she gets tackled on a regular basis; Yongsun’s baby swat is nothing to her), but when she reaches out to do it again, she grabs her hand.

Wheein gasps, promptly chokes on a tortilla chip crumb that flies to the back of her throat, wonders briefly if this is how she's going to die.

She decides she doesn't even care if it is when she sees Byulyi step closer to Yongsun, looking down at her adoringly (like she always does when she's not looking). Yongsun’s returning smile is equally fond, tilting her head, and Wheein’s dead. This is it. The moment everyone thought would never come. Byulyi is leaning in and Yongsun’s leaning up to meet her and she is going to die in her car choking on a tortilla chip, but honestly, that may be even less surprising than Byulyi and Yongsun finally getting-

_HONK! HONK!_ "MB!" The car full of rookies driving by shouts, waving. "Whaddup?"

What the  _ actual  _ fuck.

Byulyi and Yongsun  _ jump  _ apart and Wheein’s jaw drops. "No," She mutters, as they both look down at the ground. "No, no, no," She repeats helplessly, as they step even further away, avoiding all eye contact. "You-"

But it's too late. Byulyi is turning back toward her car, Yongsun’s already pulling open the door that leads to their apartment.

Wheein slumps down even further in her seat. On the bright side, at least her tombstone won't say, "Died choking on a tortilla chip" even if that is wildly on brand.

.*.*.*.*

  * _I keep telling myself this might be nothing, but one look in your eyes and, God, there’s something. You can lie to me and say you don’t, but I know you do, and I love you too._



Hyejin is on record (in multiple forms of media) having said that there's no such thing as a bad party. She’s said it, she meant it. Her enthusiasm as either a guest or a host matches only her enthusiasm for dancing and drinking-none of which can be found in greater quantities than at parties.

Her  _ only  _ pet peeve is when boundaries are crossed. She’d made it  _ impossible  _ to get up to the third floor (Seulgi had tried and failed  _ multiple  _ times; there's no way the gen pub is getting up there), so  _ how  _ is she hearing voices on her secret journey up there to get her secret stash of Bacardi (she’s got Wheein to impress; she's got to break out the slightly-better-than-Malibu rum).

"Yongsun." Byulyi sounds...shit, Byulyi sounds  _ wrecked _ , and Hyejin pauses on the steps. This isn't some rando trying to rifle through their shit. Byulyi is...what the hell is going on?

Does she need to jump in with a rescue or back track like a sis?

"Yongsun," Byulyi repeats in that same tone and it's then that Hyejin realizes what it is.  _ Pleading _ . "Come on,"

"Byul," Yongsun-are those  _ tears _ ? God knows they can't be from sadness; Yongsun’s been as into this as Byulyi has.

"Yong, you can't tell me you don't see this too!"

And Yongsun, god  _ Yongsun _ , just breathes out the  _ shakiest  _ breath. The floor is trembling under Hyejin, the bass from the party two floors below them still pumping, but she can hear the unsteadiness in her breathing. She pulls another shaky breath in and then-

"I do," She says and Hyejin fist pumps, she can't help herself. It's the moment she's been waiting for, the moment Byulyi has been waiting for. It'll be the wedding of the century for- "But-"

"There are no but's for me," Byulyi says softly. "I love you,"

Hyejin doesn't know how her gasp isn't heard. How Byulyi and Yongsun don't seem to notice that extra noise. Once again, the pull of their own world is so much stronger than reality.

"I love you too," Yongsun’s voice is  _ so soft _ , such a contrast from her typical inability to attain a normal acceptable indoor volume.

It's definitely time for Hyejin to nope the fuck out of there. If she can't get her Bacardi, she'll have to really ramp up the charm.

It shouldn't be hard with how excited she is.


End file.
